Reviews with content warning for War - Разбий ме

I really enjoyed this book! It was a great next read from the powerless series. I do think that in the beginning any of ~~crossed out text~~ could be explained better, I did have to google it just to understand what it meant. Will be continuing the series.

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anjh's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

i had high hopes for this book considering how popular it is. it was really good, the writing is incredibly poetic and i think that’s part of what makes it so good.

i’m not usually that into fantasy and dystopian books but this wasn’t bad, i did enjoy the magical element and didn’t find the world too confusing which i often do.

i was kind of surprised how much smut was in this lol. as someone who is generally incredibly bored by smut and romance n such i kind of skimmed over it or skipped it but if you are into smutty stuff i def recommend it lol.

but omg the writing. the crossing out of sentences really added to the poetic style - i loved it. i think the main highlight of this book was the writing style. it was just beautiful

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_mnm_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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sailornina's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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xabbeylongx's review against another edition

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hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Book Review:

So, this book I started a couple of years ago, and I just couldn’t get into it. I think I got to chapter three, and I put it down because I thought this book was not for me. Oh how wrong I was.

For starters, I actually now adore the layout of this book. The words that have a line through it, indicating her real thoughts VS the ones she allows herself to think/say is gorgeous. When I first read it, I wasn’t a fan of the repetition and the lack of structure the sentences in this book has, being a Creative Writing student, but I see now that it actually adds to the story. It makes it faster and more urgent when she’s panicking, or when she’s excited and has a lot of thoughts in her mind… I think it’s absolutely perfect!

I like the fact there’s only one point of view in this story, and I actually really like Juliett. She’s flawed, but she also knows it, and she’s humble. She sticks to her morals, even when people try to derail them. You can tell that she’s a character that truly cares about others, even if they don’t about her. And Adam is just the same, I really like his character. Warner is just grim, but that makes it so much better, because I truly hate his character.

With the world-building, I think it’s done really well. The pacing is good, and we’re not force fed information at the start of the novel, we are gradually fed it throughout, which is actually quite difficult to do and not often done very well, so Mafi did a great job with that. The plot itself was a little bit too-perfect for me: Warner allowed Adam to be so close because he knew her from school, and then he got rid of the cameras in her room, and they could just escape without getting into trouble, you get my point. Plus, although the action built up in the end, if we think about what happens in the book, they’re just escaping from one place to the next, unable to really stay anywhere. It works for the first book, but if they spend the rest of the series just flitting from one place to another, then it might get a bit tedious after a while.

And why did it take so long for Warner to start experimenting her with other people? There’s something that’s not quite clicking in regards to that. However, that’s my only nitpick of this novel. Other than that, it’s safe to say I’m really excited to read the next instalment in the series.

Book Summary:

We follow Juliett as she’s being kept prisoner in a cell. She hasn’t spoken to anyone in almost a year. They barely feed her more than one meal a day, and she has always been by herself. That is, until, she is given a cellmate.

Adam, his name is. He doesn’t know why she is in there, or why he is there, but he tries to befriend her. She likes him, but can’t get too close to him (physically as well as emotionally) because she has a special power: nobody can touch her. If they do, they’ll be in extreme pain whilst she feeds off it (not voluntarily, of course) and if they touch her too long, they die. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone, and has been bullied and ignored her whole life. The only person who ever stood up for her (because not even her own parents did) was Adam.

Yes, it is indeed the same Adam that is in her cell. She remembers him, but he doesn’t act like he remembers her.

She wakes up one day, after a nightmare, and her and Adam are being held by guards. When she wakes up, as she must have fallen unconscious, she finds that Adam double-crossed her. He is working with Warner, the man in charge, who is a little obsessed with her. He’s only 19, but he plans to use her as a weapon.

The Reestablishment - the people in charge - are planning to eradicate every part of culture in the world, religion, languages, historics, and have everything the way they want it. Warner is helping that, getting rid of people who are less valuable, like the old, and the sick. He wants to use Juliett to do it. She resists, but he’s very powerful.

She finds out that Adam is actually double-crossing Warner, and he’s been in love with Juliett this whole time. He is the only one that can touch her, and he’s always admired her from afar for her kindness. When Warner is trying to touch her, Adam jumps in and threatens Warner, who gets surprisingly scared. They manage to escape, but Warner just about touches Juliett without getting hurt himself. She tries to ignore it, but now there’s two people that can touch her without getting hurt.

Adam takes her to his house, and they meet his brother, James. They are only there for a night before Kenji, someone Adam used to know, runs in, and their place is given away, Warner has found them. Adam gets shot, but Juliett shoots Warner, and they manage to escape.

Turns out, Kenji is double-crossing them as well. This was all planned, and he takes them to somewhere, which is actually considered a safe place. The medics tend to Adam, who turns out okay, James is well looked after, and they are safe from Warner, for the moment. There are also 56 other people like her, people with powers.

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my3bb8's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Shatter me is the perfect book, it is so amazing and every single twist

except Adam and Juliet dating

I didn’t see coming.

The writing style of the lines scratched out was such an amazing touch and helped me understand Juliet’s crazy mind in such an easy but also interesting way

The romance in this book was also SO BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN, I can’t think of any better way it could have been written. It was absolutely amazing.

I would recommend this book so anyone who loves dystopian books and also romance novels. Such an amazing read and a great opener to the series!
5/5 stars

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sky2024's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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mckinzie6242010's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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